National League Three South West

Salisbury 14

Cornish All Blacks 7

THE Cornish All Blacks failed to make it successive victories on the road after falling to a disappointing 14-7 defeat at fellow strugglers Salisbury in National League Three South West.

After winning on the road for the first time since April 2015 at Ivybridge in their last outing, Jimmy Tucker’s men headed to Wiltshire confident of grabbing victory against a team they beat at Polson Bridge back in September.

But despite playing well for long spells, poor individual errors coupled with some slack decision-making meant that they headed back to Cornwall with just a bonus point to their name.

They now sit ten points behind Lydney who are currently just above the relegation zone.

Ahead of the game, the club announced that back-rower Barrie-John Chapman had returned to the club on loan from Redruth for a second spell after news broke of the departure of Kiwi star Everard Reid who has jumped ship to Redruth after playing just a handful of games before Christmas.

Young winger, Reuben Edwards, made a second successive start following his debut last week in a team which saw just one change, as Chapman came in at number eight with Jordan Duke moving to the second row to replace Dave Parish.

In the first-half, the All Blacks produced an excellent performance without gaining the points they perhaps deserved.

However they did take the lead when player/coach Ryan Westren scored his first try of the season.

The former London Scottish centre picked up a loose ball before driving his way over despite the best efforts of the home defence.

Fraser Honey continued where he left off from the week before by slotting over the conversion.

While their first-half performance was excellent, they started to return to some of their old habits as the match wore on.

Late in the opening 40, prop Gary Williamson was driven over following a huge rolling maul from the home forwards.

The second-half was more of a stop-start affair as the home team slowed the game down.

But their tactics were justified late on as replacement flanker Jon Goldsmith bundled his way over the line to set off pandemonium in the home end.

The result leaves Salisbury just five points from safety while for the All Blacks it was a massive chance missed as Westren admitted to the Post.

Westren said: “At the end of the day the game was down to us making individual mistakes. As the game wore on they recognised our weaknesses and won the game, so fair play to them. But we were so dominant in the first-half when we defended well and got over the game line.

“This was effectively an eight-point turnaround kind of game so for us to lose was poor. We need to beat the teams around us but at least Lydney didn’t win and the gap was reduced to ten points.”

One positive was the performance of Barrie-John Chapman, who was making his first start for the All Blacks in over three years.

Westren said: “Barrie is a great ball carrier and when he tackles you he knocks your head off. He’s absolutely perfect for what we need right now and I’m sure he’ll get better the more he plays.”

This Saturday sees the headline game of the season as they welcome Camborne to Polson Bridge for the first time in a number of years.

The Cornish side are currently third in the table following last weekend’s 25-18 victory over Ivybridge, but Westren believes it’s the perfect game to restart their survival bid.

Westren added: “Saturday is a huge game and it’s a Cornish local derby, which means even more to us.

“We need the boys to perform to the best of their ability in front of a massive crowd and get the win.

“Camborne are obviously doing well but they’re not the side they were two or three months ago, and it’ll be interesting to see how they handle a derby at Polson Bridge, which is a unique place to rugby.”

Over the last few weeks at training there has been a concerted effort to make sure that they keep hammering home the basics and that’s exactly what they’re going to do at training this week.

Westren continued: “We’re going to make sure that we keep doing the basics well and then once we start nailing those we can start thinking about playing more exciting rugby. We can’t be making silly mistakes on Saturday and we need to work as hard as we can at training so that we’re at it come matchday.”

One player who will be missing this weekend and for the next few is fly-half Fraser Honey who broke his thumb at Salisbury. The staff are yet to decide who will take over kicking duties against Camborne.

Kick-off for the game is at 2.30pm.